How will sculk blocks spread in Minecraft 1.19?

Minecraft 1.19 update will be released in late 2022 with the Deep Dark biome and sculk blocks. This will be the third new cave biome besides Lush Caves and Dripstone Caves that were added with the Caves and Cliffs update. Apart from this, the update will feature a Mangrove Swamp Biome and several new mobs like Frogs, Tadpoles, Fireflies, Allay, and the Warden.

The Deep Dark Biome in Minecraft 1.19 will mainly feature new sculk blocks that will spread deepslate caves and turn into new biomes. These new blocks won't cover the entire cave system, and will only be present deep below minus Y levels. However, it is fascinating to see how these blocks will look as they spread overtime and cover the caves, and this is a great way for players to see how this infestation must have happened.

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How will the sculk blocks spread and convert other blocks in Minecraft 1.19?

Sculk Catalyst

Though the Deep Dark Biome spread in the caves will be automatically generated when the chunks load, players can manually spread these blocks with the help of a sculk catalyst.

Sculk catalyst (Image via Minecraft)

This block is a type of sculk that is essentially responsible for the spread of all sculk blocks. In the Minecraft 1.19 update, this block will enable the sculk to increase with the help of XP points. Basically, if a player or a mob dies near a sculk catalyst, instead of the XP points lying around, the block will turn them into more sculk blocks, creating a small patch.

Any mob that drops XP points can spread these blocks (Image via Minecraft)

Whenever players are in the deep dark biome in Minecraft 1.19, they will notice this block and whenever they kill the Warden or any other mob near it, the new blocks will spread on the area where the XP points were dropped. The amount of XP points dropped determines the amount of spread of these new blocks. The sculk catalyst will be primarily used for this feature.

Bubbles can be seen when normal blocks are converted by the sculk catalyst (Image via Mojang)

After spreading, the catalyst block will not only convert normal blocks into sculk, but also spawn new kinds of sculk blocks like sensors and shriekers. Hence, if players are spreading sculk in an area, they need to be cautious of shriekers, which can summon the Warden.

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Mining sculk for XP points

Breaking these blocks gives 1 XP point each (Image via Mojang)

Once the catalyst block spreads the new blocks in an area with dropped XP points, these new blocks can be mined to gain XP points as well. These normal sculks can be broken by a pickaxe to obtain 1 XP point per block. If players need to mine the block itself, they will have to use a Silk Touch enchantment.